On my way home from work this morning with my 91 Dodge Shadow, I went to accelerate to get on the expressway. When I hit the gas the car died. I can get it to turn over, and I have fuel and plenty of fuel pressure. I also have a visible outside spark coming from the spark plugs. But I am not sure if I have a spark internally. But she still won't turn over all the way. My radio and dome light come on so I don't think it is an eletrical problem. But I could be wrong. I am not new to working on my cars but this one has me stumped. She also seems to only be working on 1 or 2 cylinders with somewhat loud backfiring as I am attempting to turn her over. I have checked all the obvious things and now I am looking for someone to look outside the box or who has had the same problem with their car to help me out.

I had replaced a blown head gasket about a month ago. And she ran fine until this morning. Please help me, I don't want to drive my wife's Saturn any longer than I have to, I want my Dodgey back.

Brandon

 

Never mind, I found out the problem....a blown cam shaft. It broke right in half and the piece that held together was only firing one cylinder, hence the backfiring! At least it is fixable, but it stinks that I will have to do it on the side of the thruway.

 

I had that happen at a stop sign, but my cylinder head had been cracked and welded (not very well) by the previous owner. It took a while of tinnkering with stuff to finally figure out to pull the valve cover and see the nice break in the cam and a 1/4" of seperation between the pieces of the cam. Lucky for me I had a spare cam, head, and AAA (to tow the car).